The scenario is familiar to millions of people who idly surf the internet and toy with potential purchases on Amazon.

But what many of the retail giant’s customers, including celebrities and politicians, do not realise is that their private tastes and interests can be easily accessed with the click of a mouse.

Items on their ‘Wish Lists’ – those products they might want to buy in the future or hope to receive as gifts – can be seen simply by inserting a name or email address into a search box. The only way users can keep choices private is by clicking on a barely noticeable ‘manage your lists’ button.

When The Mail on Sunday tested the system, we uncovered lists matched to several celebrities, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Pippa Middleton and Downton Abbey star Michelle Dockery.

A search for Miss Middleton revealed that she added two A-Level Geography text books to her Wish List in June 2006 – a strange choice since she was studying for a degree in English Literature at Edinburgh at the time.

Her mother Carole also has a list, and it reveals her green-fingered habits as it includes the book The Great Vegetable Plot, described as a guide to ‘creating the perfect vegetable garden with the minimum of fuss and effort’.

Celebrity wishlist: The private tastes and choices of anyone can be accessed simply by inserting a name into a search box. A Mail on Sunday test revealed comedian Michael McIntryre appears to have listed diet books, Nigella Lawson, cupcake books and Benedict Cumberbatch had his eye on organic lavender hand and body soaps

Oscar-nominee Cumberbatch sticks to type – appearing to have listed a Kindle version of The Complete Works Of Shakespeare – ahead of his much-anticipated debut as Hamlet at the Barbican later this year.

However, perhaps with the recent Oscars ceremony in mind, there are also bottles of organic lavender soap.

Surprisingly for a Domestic Goddess, Nigella Lawson appears to wish for two books on cupcakes, while TV presenter Carol Vorderman’s list hints at how she maintains her fabulous figure. She lists a trampoline – and ‘body sculpture’ underwear.

Miss Dockery had a chrome bell and kitsch wicker basket for her bicycle on her Amazon Wish List. The list was deleted after we pointed out the privacy breach to her representatives.

While Liberal Democrat and Conservative members of the Cabinet all hid their choices behind privacy settings, some Labour frontbenchers appeared to be more relaxed about their browsing.

The list of Stella Creasy, the 38-year-old cat-loving Walthamstow feminist who was recently appointed to Ed Miliband’s Shadow Cabinet, includes the book Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women And The Rise Of Raunch Culture. Jon Cruddas, Mr Miliband’s policy chief, appears to be keen on This Is England, a 2006 film drama about skinheads.

If you insert the name Ed Balls, just one item comes up – The Rainbow, by D.H. Lawrence, who went to the same school in Nottingham as the Shadow Chancellor.

However, it seems that the Amazon system is easy to manipulate. There is a Wish List purporting to contain the perfect gifts for Chuka Umunna, Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary – a £39 pot of Neal’s Yard face cream, a book on Rock And Pop Fashion by Malcolm McLaren, and a pair of swanky Brook Taverner moleskin trousers (34in waist).

A bemused spokesman said last night: ‘It is a different Chuka Umunna. He has never selected those items.’

Pippa and Carole Middleton did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesman for Carol Vorderman said that the former Countdown star had not placed the items on the Wish List, but said that up to a dozen members of her family used the account. The trampoline and body-shaping undergarment were deleted after the TV presenter was approached by The Mail on Sunday.

A source at the Information Commissioner’s Office said it would be willing to look into the privacy issue.

Share this article

Share

Amazon said: ‘You can set up your list so that it’s visible only to yourself, to people with a direct link, or to anyone.’ The spokesman then described a link buried in its website which explains how to make lists private.

Amazon 'should warn shoppers how data is used'

Amazon has been accused of breaching customers’ privacy by making it unclear how shoppers can make their Wish Lists private.

The world’s largest online retailer automatically sets customers’ Wish Lists as being available to public view – which critics say leaves them open to snooping or abuse. Internet privacy expert Alan Stevens said it should be the other way around.

‘Amazon has an obligation to look after people’s interests and these settings should be private unless someone wants to make them public,’ he said. ‘It is simply unacceptable that millions of people are unaware that their shopping habits and interests are on show to the world. It is up to Amazon to be much clearer and honest.’

It follows criticism of internet giants over a number of privacy breaches – including the theft last year of the details of 223 million eBay users in the most widespread computer hack in history.

Easy: Products people might want to buy in the future or hope to receive as gifts can be seen simply by inserting a name or email address into a search box. The only way users can keep choices private is by clicking on a barely noticeable ‘manage your lists’ button

Amazon has also faced controversy over its use of ‘cookies’, which store information on what shoppers have been looking at so it can market other products to them. Critics say it is invasive, but the company says the cookies help consumers because they filter out items they are not interested in.

And Amazon has come under fire over claims that millions of UK customers may have been ‘duped’ into signing up to its £79-a-year Prime service by not cancelling a 30-day free subscription offer.

Customers sign up for the promotion so they can get free delivery on items they are purchasing at the online checkout.

But what many people do not realise is that the onus is on them to cancel the subscription at the end of the free period.